Can a jury flip a coin to determine a verdict?

Given these and the other instructions, reasonable jurors would not have inferred it was permissible to decide a case by the flip of a coin or chance determination. Nor did the court, as defendant contends, in effect tell "the jury [it] need not deliberate and reach a unanimous verdict based on the evidence."² And, of course, there is no evidence jurors flipped a coin or engaged in other misconduct in reaching the verdict. Defendant's argument concerning CALJIC No. 17.40 and deadlocked juries (see People v. Whaley (2007) 152 Cal.App.4th 968, 985) has no application here because the jury never deadlocked, and defendant notes they reached a verdict relatively quickly. Finally, as noted above and in light of the instructions as a whole, the omission did not violate defendant's federal constitutional rights by relieving the prosecution of proving beyond a reasonable doubt each element of the charged offense.

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The judgment is affirmed.